Must See!

http://www.godtube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=13a4a045cd290bc2ae2d

Reflections

"Reflections"
Inspired by God

Photo By Amber Skeeters Poem By Vanita Hindsley Sisters in Christ

♥

Reflections of the past

seem to lead us round the bend

Heading for the future,

guided by an unseen hand.

♥

In a shining piece of metal

past, present, and future reside.

Where we have been, who we are,

and where we will go are inside.

♥

God's guidance makes us wiser

as we enter unknown lands

In the rearview we will find

never alone did we stand

♥

He's always watching over

every path we travel down

and when going the wrong direction,

He will help to turn us around

♥

A reflection of my Savior

in silver to someday see

is what I trust and pray

will be looking back at me.

♥

Copyright 2008 Vanita Hindsley and Amber Skeeters

I took this photo on a little one lane road, someone had placed the mirror there so they could see what was coming around the corner.

Pondering

Don't know what this is all about yet. But God told me to put it here. Don't know if it's for me or someone else. Let me know what it brings to your mind.

"Why does something have to happen before you do anything?"

I think that's how He put it. Kept waking me up last night!

Light In The Darkness

"A Light In The Darkness"

Inspired by GOD

Photo by Amber Skeeters

Poem by Vanita Hindsley

Sisters in Christ and Children of God

Through darkness, sorrow, guilt, and shame
and many fears that had no name
My hopes and dreams had all but shattered
getting through each day was all that mattered

In downward spiral my life seemed to spin
hopeless and helpless, when would it end
My fault, My fault, screamed in my head
no rest or peace as I lay on my bed

But light crept in from time to time
and started to reach my tormented mind
His love began to prod at me
a rescue from that stormy sea

I've already beaten him my Savior reminded
though for some time he's had you blinded
Take the shelter I've offered to you
call on Me I'll see you through

Each day is now brighter with His shining light
my future secure in His strength and might
my hope in Him has no end in sight

By Vanita Hindsley

http://www.whoamithatyouaremindfulofme.blogspot.com/

It doesn't show up well on the screen, but in the window to the left is a portrait of Jesus, praying.

Copyright 2008 Vanita Hindsley and Amber Skeeters

Following THE leader, together

" Scars"

Inspired by GOD

Photo by Amber Skeeters

Poem by Vanita Hindsley

Children of GOD and Best Friends

http://www.whoamithatyouaremindfulofme.blogspot.com/

We all leave marks with our words and actions,
some happy or sad, of sorrow and satisfaction.

Traces left as we travel through this life,
many created from love and strife.

Remnants of words, written and spoken,
can lift us up or leave us broken.

From the least of us to the greatest, we all leave a mark,
if only on the face of this elderly bark.

Scars are there forever to see
in the way they shape each personality.

Copyright 2008 Vanita Hindsley and Amber Skeeters

We hope you enjoy this collaboration of gifts. God has a purpose for this. My love of photography and my best friends love of writing united together to share lifes lessons.

Where I've Been

I am just about to bust with love and peace and joy and thankfulness. Last time I was here, I shared with you the opening of my new etsy store. Today I would like to share with you my experiences there the last couple of weeks. Not only has my store opened and received lots of traffic, I made my first sale. Not the artwork as hoped, but a sale none the less. My friends know I just love stuff of all kinds and love to sell it in my store and now on Etsy too. But what I really wanted to share with you is my experience as a buyer. Etsy is a whole new thing, and yet feels like a thing from the past. Let me explain. Once you become familiar with how it works, you step into a shop you pick by the name or contents or color or whatever attracts you and you realize you've stepped into another place and time. A time when you were greeted by the merchant and and you are surrounded by things that grab your attention. Things made with love and attention to detail. Things that inspire you. Things that make you feel all is well in the simple life. Things that make you realize what we can do and how we can live. A step back in time when men and women made things to sell and trade. Pretty things, useful things.
I don't know if anyone else has the same experience as I have. But I know that I have met some pretty nice people that I'd like you to meet.
My first purchase was from http://www.charminglee.etsy.com/
You can hear the kindness in her descriptions and in her conversations. Don't you like to buy from someone who is polite and friendly and happy to help you? Not gonna find that in wallyworld. Then yesterday I "met" http://www.lindaleighshoppe.etsy.com
She too was like talking to a neighbor! (Pray for her, she's recovering from surgery : )
I guess what I'm trying to say is SHOP ETSY! It's a whole new/old experience. If you are going to buy a gift or want something unique, Why not buy from the good old independant shopkeeper?

Etsy Store Now Open!

If you have never been to Etsy, you are in for a real treat! Etsy is a market place, not an auction site, where artists and craftspeople of every kind from around the world set up unique specialty shops you are just going to adore! I hear so many people complain about not being able to find unique shops anymore...well, here they all are, packed into one place. So browse around till your heart is content. Have a look at my new shop when you click on the link below and then be sure to look around at the rest of the shops. Try clicking my Favorites to see the wonderful artists I have found so far. Why buy "made in china" when you can by handmade! Enjoy!

http://www.jewelsfromjunk.etsy.com/

Self Discovery

As I was tinkering with the blog today, fixing broken links and organizing the pictures, I realized how much I have always enjoyed photography. I always knew it, in fact we just bought a digital camera a couple of months ago because I was missing taking pictures after our 35mm died. But today I realized it wasn't just the friends and family pictures that I missed so much. It was the artistic photos! As I started looking in my pictures to see what else to add here, I realized what kind of pictures I had been taking. I have lots of animals (I love the challenge of trying to photograph them) sunrises, unusual sightings, stuff I just really love! I am so excited. I had forgotten. How can that be? How did I forget my love of photography. Thank you LORD for bringing it back to me!

Anyway, check out the pictures to the right under "My Photographs" I'll be adding more as I get through what is saved on our computer.

CHRISTmas Eve Day

Well, the orders are completed and picked up. The store is quiet for the moment. I have one more customer coming to pick up an antique glider at 1:00 and that leaves me with a few free minutes to post unless a customer comes in.
I am sooooo excited. First the Lord introduces me to Somerset Studio Magazine. That was true love! Then I found ClothPaperScissors . I learned I am not the only one doing what I do and I discovered so many wonderful techniques and artists and ideas. Oh My! There is a whole world out there that I fit into perfectly. I didn't think it could get any better.
But I have now learned that there are "Artist Challenge" sites. Each week, a challenge is issued......

OK. Let's try this again. I started this post Christmas Eve day and now it's the day after Christmas. Our store was blessed! Last year we sold nothing on Christmas Eve!
So, where was I? Oh yes. I had no idea those magazines even existed until this summer. I was so excited (and obsessed!) Then while surfing other blogs, I learned there are artist challenges. Each week someone issues a challenge with a word or phrase or something and you create a piece of art expressing it. I decided to take it a step further by challenging myself to see it I could take each challenge and bring Jesus into it. I was a bit worried after visiting the site and looking over all the past challenges but had decided to try. THEN, God led me to SALT. The challenges are ALREADY FOR HIM!
I'm am soooo there! I think the next challenge is issued THIS Friday. I can't wait.
So look for my future Salt results! If I have the time I think I'll still try to do the other one too, after all the word is CHALLENGE right?

CHRISTmas

I thought I would share this with you. My Dad sent the link to me in an email. I had a similar design in mind for a piece of artwork, but this outdoes my idea! Hope you enjoy it as much as I did. The ultimate invitation!

http://www.frontiernet.net/~jimdandy/specials/xmas.htm

I Can See Clearly Now

A picture truly is worth a thousand words. But I've been thinking about writers and the words they find to truly get a message across. God Himself used words as well as His creations to make Himself known and seen. But today I'm impressed by writers. How do you do it?! I have tried 3 times to express in words what this photo is making me feel and each time I find that I cannot do it justice. So today my gratitude goes out to writers, writers of song lyrics and books and poetry, the written word. I love to read and find pure amazement in that ability.

To me this photo of the sun rising brings to mind Faith, Trust and Love.

I know that the sun is about to top this mountain. I am counting on it. I depend on it and I am excited about it because I know it's going to happen any second.

That's how I feel about God. I know He is here with me. I depend on Him. I am excited to know that He loves me and has control of my life. And I know that He will do what is best for me.

I bring this to the blog today because it was on my heart. We are in retail and it's the last week before Christmas and I was allowing myself to get a little on edge about getting all the work done. We do picture framing in our shop as well as selling other kinds of things, glass, artwork, collectibles, gifts, things like that. I draw portraits too. The fear of not getting the orders done on time, supplies not getting here on time, all the things that could go wrong were worrying me. Not anymore. The Lord blessed us with the orders and I have faith He will help me see things through. As I know that the sun will rise, as I know that God is with me, all is well.

Hope everyone has a wonderful, blessed Christmas. And may we all remember the true reason for it.

Merrry CHRISTmas!

Heal The Wound

by Point of Grace

I used to wish that I could rewrite history

I used to dream that each mistake could be erased

Then I could just pretend

I never knew the me back then

I used to pray that you would take this shame away

Hide all the evidence of who I’ve been

But it’s the memory of the place you’ve brought me from

that keeps me on my knees even though I’m free

Heal the wound but leave the scar

A reminder of how merciful You are

I am broken, torn apart

Take the pieces of this heart

Heal the wound but leave the scar

Follow The Leader

Some days seem more inspired than others and I find myself lead to share this one.

I had such an organized plan for this blog! Oh well. I'll just follow "The Leader", after all, it's all for Him.

The other day, I took our camera's memory card to have all the photos saved to a disk for backup. I put it in the machine and all of our photos loaded up on the screen. As I stood there watching the familiar pictures pass before my eyes, I thought I saw something I'd not noticed before, but it was gone before I could be sure and then I forgot about it. Untill this morning when He reminded me to look.

In September, my husband and I and some dear friends headed to a cabin in Telico Plains for a long awaited vacation to clear our minds, bond with each other, praise God, and wallow in His glory and presence. It was perfect and it was beautiful! We were blessed in so many ways. We took our brand new camera with us to record the whole experience including 2 gorgeous sunrises. One was pretty but not so colorful. The other was extraordinarily colorful. God certainly showed His glory that morning! But I must admit I didn't look too close at the photos of the not so colorful one, but as I watched them come across that screen, I thought I saw something interesting. And now that I have had a chance to look at them closely I have confirmed what I thought I saw. I am now awestruck at the revelations. Want to know what's there in the photos?

First, let me share what I "see".

God is always there. He's there even when things are not so "colorful". He's there when things seem ordinary. He's there when things are difficult or even impossible. He's there even when we aren't thinking about Him.

He told me one time that by placing my life in His hands, He would have His hands in my life.

How can I not be aware of that at every moment?

Then He leaves a little reminder, like the photo, and speaks through it telling us that He is always there if we just look and trust Him.

Thank You Father, for showing me, for leading as you do, for revealing yourself in the ordinary.

O.K. Now, click on the picture above to get the larger image. Look in the forground at the largest tree. There, near the top is an image of the cross on a hill. It's visible in every photo I took that morning.

Photos of "Cross Roads"

The sketch from 2004.


"Cross Roads" in 3D
Closeup photos can be seen in the slide show to the right.

Todays Project

November 30 2007
On Monday I am mailing my art project as a submission to an art magazine that I discovered this summer. I need to write the article to accompany it. The devil has tried every lie to stop me. "Your art is not good enough, no one is going to understand what it's saying, you are wasting your time, you'll look like a fool." He has put every obstacle in my way. He tries so hard to confuse me. The Bible says: "I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me-the task of testifying to the gospel of God's grace" Act 20:24.
He gave that to me at the beginning of this project. I've had to read it nearly every day. The Lord has directed this and I pray I haven't let Him down. I pray I didn't let the devil in in any way. There is so much I tried to pack into one project. Self doubt is such an evil trick to play on us. But he has lost. We won!(Jesus and I) The project is completed and the article written. Here goes.

"Cross Roads"
Bedford County Tennessee 2004
Like every other morning, I was driving to work on the same rural road I traveled every day and stopped at the four-way stop sign. On two corners, cornstalks grew right to the roads edge.
On another corner was a house. The last corner was empty but for the overgrown weeds and lone post from a long forgotten barbed wire fence. The post stood overgrown and nearly unseen with Queen Ann's Lace, tall grasses and the like. A sign was attached warning of underground cables or some such. Nothing that particularly caught your attention. But on this morning, as I looked both ways and saw nothing for miles, my attention was caught by this post and I saw it...shall we say...with opened eyes. I saw a signpost alright. But in my minds eye it had signs nailed on it pointing in different directions. The overall sight of it immediately made me think of a cross. And it even had 3 nails. I thought I had just come up with the perfect subject for a drawing. I couldn't wait to get home that evening and start sketching.
Now you have to know that I believed there was a God. I knew the story of Jesus. And I thought that I, being a pretty good person, would go to heaven. What I didn't know was that God Himself had just entered my life and introduced Himself in a way only He could. He was making me think. He was asking if I knew where I was going? He was giving me directions.
I know my Savior now. And my life is devoted to Him. I haven't shared the drawing with many, but He says it's time. He spoke to me through art and now asks that I use that art to speak of Him to others. Traveling through life with Jesus continues to be an amazing journey. What Jesus did for man is more than amazing and He is a perfect pattern for us. There could be no greater hero. He simply tries to make heroes of us.

Photo to be added soon

Thought Gathering

November 30, 2007
Today's entry is simply for me to gather my thoughts. It's out of the order I wanted to write in, but that's OK.
I am in a battle with the devil. As always, he is trying to get my mind confused and undermine my mission. I will win! Because "with Jesus, all things are possible." And what I am doing is for Him.
God speaks to me with vision. During prayer, God put in my heart three C's. I did not understand what He was saying to me for many months. Eventually, I realized He was saying "see", not the letter C.
He taught me the 3 kinds of seeing. The first two came easy. The 3rd, a bit harder to get, but simple to understand.
We see with our eyes of the flesh. We look, our brain registers what we are seeing and tells us what it is. We know. We see colors, shapes, dimensions, movement, etc. . You are reading this with your eyes of the flesh.
Then there is seeing with our minds. We form a vision of a thought, description or idea in our minds. An understanding. Notice people say "I see" when they understand what you are saying or describing. We describe something to a blind person and they have an understanding of what we are saying to them in their mind.
And then there's the 3rd way to see. It has taken months to truly understand it. I first came to realize it was seeing in the spirit, seeing like God sees. And then my pastor spoke God's words so that I finally saw. "Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see" That is seeing in the spirit. What we ask Him for, if we believe, is already done even if we don't see it manifested yet.
Flesh, mind and faith. The 3 C's I struggled to understand. So simple now, But I learned what He was saying and grew so close to Him in seeking His guidance.

Thoreau said, "The question is not what you look at, but what you see"

That being said, I find that there is yet more to be looked at. Being an artist, I tend to look for a deeper meaning in a piece of art. But your average person only sees the surface. Let's say you are looking at a painting of a train. It looks just like a train in every detail. It's beautifully painted with soft clouds in the sky and mountains and trees in the background. There's a train station off to the side with people all around. Nice to look at. But the artistic mind looks for more. What is the painting saying or expressing? Look closely in the crowd and you'll notice a man with a look of anguish on his face. What is he looking at? Notice also in the window of the train, the sad look on the face of the woman seated inside. There's a story in the painting. I don't know what it is, nor do I understand why I used a train for an example, so don't get too involved!
I want my artwork to speak volumes of Jesus on the surface as well as on a deeper level. I want it to tell the story to those who don't look for the deeper meaning. If I am looking at a piece of artwork and I can't get the meaning by studying it on my own, I want to know the story!
( I should write the story behind it to accompany each piece)
God gave us the Bible with the whole story in it. But sometimes we can't get it on our own. "Faith comes by hearing the word of God" hence, we go to church and hear our pastors teach it and speak it. That is how our faith grows. Then we see. You see?
I feel better. My mind is clear to complete my goal for the day.

P.S. Ever notice we say "In one ear and out the other" but we never say "In one eye and out the other" ? Hmmmmm post for another day.
God Bless

Explanation Of "Jewels From Junk"

November 23, 2007

Welcome to the very first entry in "Jewels From Junk"!

I should begin with an explanation of the title.

It is a combination of who I am and what I do.

Who I am: I am a Christian. God took the junk that I was and made me into a jewel. His jewel. He loves me and taught me to love myself and others.

What I do: I take the junk left by the world and create jewels in the form of art. This is my passion and also my purpose.

I have been amazed in my journey with Jesus. Questions answered, prayers answered and it will take many posts here to get it all out. And it does have to come out, here and in my art. I prayed for quite some time for God to tell me what my purpose was. I knew He had something for me to do for Him. "Everyone and everything has a purpose" He finally answered. Well, I already knew that! It took awhile to realize what He was telling me. He tends to tell me things that seem so simple on the surface, but that have a deeper meaning when I think on them a while. It brings us closer when I seek His guidance. What He was saying was, the "everything" was the junk I'd been hording for years just knowing I could do SOMETHING with it! My purpose is finally known!!!!!! ...................O.K. Now What??